Locking eyes with the man on the golden chariot, cold sweat trickled down Yoshino Takashi's forehead.
"What's wrong? Go on, eat up~" The illusion dissipated. Just as Yoshino Takashi was about to throw the small bowl in his hand away, Mo Bai's voice rang out.
To his horror, Yoshino Takashi discovered his body was moving against his will. His mouth opened, his head tilted back, and the small bowl by his lips began to tip.
"Damn it! What's happening! Stop! Stop!" His futile mental struggle had no effect on his body's actions whatsoever. In his panic, Yoshino Takashi saw Mo Bai's cold smirk gradually superimpose itself over the image of the man on the phantom chariot.
The moment the broth entered his mouth, the world was thrown into upheaval.
Yoshino Takashi looked around. All that remained was the isolated island where he stood, surrounded by high, stacked walls, as if everything else in existence had been swallowed by a pitch-black ocean.
"I'm the king?" Yoshino Takashi touched the crown on his head. Looking around again, he saw he was surrounded by soldiers.
But the high walls and the numerous soldiers gave him no sense of security—for out on the waves, Mo Bai raised a golden trident and brought it down with savage force.
The ocean, as if being pulled, formed a massive whirlpool.
Something in the deep sea seemed to break free from its confinement, letting out a deafening roar!
Yoshino Takashi clutched his ears in pain. Standing on the ramparts, he soon saw the behemoth that crawled out of the deep-sea whirlpool—a giant, soft-bodied sea monster with an orange-red head. It controlled countless thick tentacles below, which relentlessly battered the high walls of the isolated island.
Each strike made the entire island tremble as if in an earthquake. The valiant soldiers fell one by one into the sea, becoming food for schools of fish.
"The city can't be held!" The moment the thought entered Yoshino Takashi's mind, a crisp cracking sound came from the high wall beneath his feet.
Seeing the spiderweb of cracks spreading across the wall, the giant sea monster grew even more excited, its tentacles striking again and again. In a near instant, the high wall shattered, and the black seawater surged onto the island, carrying the great beast with it.
"It's over!" Yoshino Takashi's vision went dark. The breach in the wall was constantly being widened by the rushing seawater. Even as his soldiers charged the sea monster, ready to die, there was no changing the outcome of the battle.
The crown slipped from his head and shattered on the stone slabs with a crash.
Gazing at the massive wave that washed over the high wall, Yoshino Takashi felt something inside him shatter completely, along with the crown.
A giant wave crashed down, and tranquility returned to the world.
Mo Bai drove his chariot up to the dazed Yoshino Takashi, who was now drifting on the sea, and thrust his trident down.
"Bang!" The white porcelain bowl hit the ground and shattered into several pieces. Yoshino Takashi snapped back from the heart-pounding culinary landscape.
"I'm not dead? Hahahaha! I'm actually okay!" His first reaction was to feel his body all over. In the culinary landscape, he had been skewered by the trident like a salted fish and displayed as a trophy of victory.
However, before the ecstatic laughter of having escaped death could leave his lips, he heard Mo Bai's furious roar.
"You have that much of a problem with my dish? Fine! Then let's have a shokugeki!"
Kasuga Yanagi never imagined that as she approached Mo Bai with a smile, hoping to get a taste... to celebrate, something like this would happen. The brilliant smile froze on her face.
Her microphone had faithfully broadcast Mo Bai's roar to the entire venue. The camera skillfully panned to the shattered porcelain bowl on the high stage, from which a whole, beautiful flower of fish meat had fallen to the ground. The applause died down as the entire audience was struck dumb.
"What a reckless waste of a heavenly gift! He should have given it to me!"
"After all, contestant Mo Bai put so much effort into making that. If someone threw my work on the ground, I'd fight them too."
"Wow, is the contestant from Yoshinoya that shameless? He got zero points himself and then he throws the perfect-score contestant's dish on the ground?"
The onlookers broke into a flurry of discussion, but after one voice rang out, the disparate chatter quickly began to unify.
"Shokugeki! Shokugeki!"
The onlookers' eyes lit up. More drama to watch? This gossip is so juicy!
"Shokugeki! Shokugeki! Shokugeki!" The chants rose and fell, one after another.
"It wasn't me, I didn't do it!" Yoshino Takashi was unable to defend himself.
"Are you saying I did it?" Mo Bai took a step forward and grabbed Yoshino Takashi by the collar.
"Don't forget, you've lost contact with your bodyguards since the night before last, haven't you?" The words whispered in Yoshino Takashi's ear sent a chill down his spine.
"Mo-kun, calm down!" The big bald guy, Colson, and Harano Katsuya hurriedly pulled Mo Bai away.
"Say no more! Let's have a shokugeki! If you win, I'll pretend none of this ever happened!" Pulled away, Mo Bai's eyes were red as his acting skills went online.
"..."
How is that possible? Was Ryohei really caught?
If Mo Bai really chose to report this, with conclusive evidence, he would face more than just a hit to his reputation.
A shokugeki really was the only path left before him. But... could he win?
Thinking of the dish Mo Bai had presented earlier, Yoshino Takashi suddenly felt the world spin, unable to even speak.
"Contestant Mo Bai, calm down. I know you're furious, but you need to calm down for now. If a shokugeki is to be held, the judges must be professionals from the culinary industry."
"Besides myself and Miko Chiba Eda, we're still short one judge."
"If you really can't let it go, tomorrow—I'll arrange it for you first thing tomorrow morning," Colson said hurriedly.
"Right! There aren't enough judges!" Yoshino Takashi was ecstatic, as if he'd just grasped a life-saving straw.
"As long as I have time, as long as I have time..."
"In that case, might I be so bold as to nominate myself as a judge?" After shrugging off his jacket, Wang Yao—his white chef's coat emblazoned with the auspicious beast, the Qilin—was led respectfully onto the high stage by an IGO staff member.
Under the sunlight, the Qilin image that stretched from the left breast of his coat all the way to his back shimmered with a five-colored celestial light.
The eyes of the entire venue were focused on Wang Yao.
"Qi-Qi-Qi-Qilin-level Chef!?" After her lips trembled out a series of 'Qi's, Kasuga Yanagi finally recovered her ability to speak.
The television station staff also hurried to deliver his file.
Wang Yao. Birthplace: Hua nation. Promoted to Special-Grade Chef at eighteen, promoted to Qilin-level Chef at twenty-two.
The file was brief, but reading it made Kasuga Yanagi's legs go weak.
In the Far East, a Qilin-level Chef was truly as rare as a phoenix feather or a qilin's horn.
The last one to successfully reach this rank did so twenty years ago, and it was none other than the current leader of the Far East's culinary world, the director of Tōtsuki, Nakiri Senzaemon.
And the rarity of Qilin-level Chefs meant they held an incredibly high status in the Far East.
If Nakiri Senzaemon were to announce he was hosting a banquet, every prominent figure in the Far East would swarm to it, scrambling for a way to attend.
For a personage of this caliber to appear at a live television broadcast, this was insane!
"MMP! Chief, if you don't give me a bonus after this, I quit!" With the chance to be the first host in twenty years to get this close to a top-tier master, Kasuga Yanagi felt her back no longer ached, her stomach no longer hurt, and she was full of energy even without getting to taste any food.
"From the continent of Hua, the Qilin-level Chef, Master Wang Yao, has made a surprise appearance!"
"Will the shokugeki between contestant Mo Bai and contestant Yoshino Takashi take place? Let's wait and see..."
Colson shot an incredibly harsh glare at the overly excited Kasuga Yanagi, who immediately recognized the reality of the situation and cowered like a dog.
"Your Excellency Wang Yao, please, take your seat," Colson and Chiba Eda said, bowing in unison.
The shokugeki judges now met the requirement. The battle was unavoidable.
"Was this also part of your plan?" As they passed each other, Wang Yao, with his super-hearing, fired off a snarky comment.
"Get lost!" Slipping from the spotlight into a supporting role, Mo Bai expressed his extreme displeasure.
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